Hookworms Break Up Following Abuse Allegations Against Lead Singer

The news came a day after allegations of sexual and emotional abuse surfaced against Hookworm's frontman, Matthew "MJ" Johnson on October 30th. Alanna McCardle, former frontwoman of Joanna Gruesome and current singer of Ex-Void, took to Twitter to say that she had been contacted by a woman identified as "L" who claims she suffered "horrific abuse" from Johnson including sexual assault during their relationship. "L" told McCardle she had dated the Hookworms singer in 2016 and that following their relationship he "pursued an emotionally abusive love-bombing campaign towards L in an attempt to reframe his actions".

McCardle said, "I have seen evidence of Matt texting L a few weeks ago admitting to these sexually and emotionally abusive actions".

The Ex-Void singer, who also dated Johnson, went on to state, "Given the social stature that Matt has in  the UK music scene, and the (to put it mildly) worrying and clearly manipulative attempts he has made over the course of many years to position himself as a feminist activist and ally, she and I were both frankly terrified at how he has abused his power and trust to such a horrifying extent".

Hookworms subsequently posted a Tweet that they had canceled all shows and would no longer continue as a band.

pic.twitter.com/QXaX2rUOij

— HOOKWORMS (@HOOKWORMS) October 31, 2018

Matt Johnson has denied all of the allegations made against him and shared his own statement following the news that the band had broken up.

He said, "to be clear, I deny, and always will deny, the allegations that were posted yesterday [October 30th].  I understood that L and I were both unhappy with parts of our short relationship, but we had not been in contact for some time. She contacted me recently and during our exchanges (we did not meet) she asked me to characterise some of my actions towards her as abusive to assist her, she said, with her ongoing recovery from historic sexual abuse that occurred prior to us knowing each other. I regret now accepting any blame".

Hookworms have released three critically acclaimed albums and most recently played shows in Amsterdam and Brussels, with a planned show on November 10th, that has since been canceled.